Dec. 15, 2013

Over the past year, Gov. Rick Snyder has held forums across the state to collect input on a variety of energy-related issues and released reports on important topics such as renewable energy and energy efficiency.

According to the reports, we can achieve a 30% renewable energy standard without affecting reliability, given the resources we have in Michigan today. Another report states that we can reduce our consumption of electricity by one-third over the next 10 years through efficiency.

Our lawmakers can save Michigan families and businesses money and create jobs in this emerging sector of our economy.

Julia Hudgens

Sterling Heights

Bonds are not the cure for ailing city finances

In the editorial ďAvoiding a crisis beats fixing one,Ē twice the Free Press endorses issuing bonds to improve a municipalityís balance sheet. I disagree. Without the serious changes in spending habits, bonds only delay the inevitable.

Issuing bonds to cover unfunded obligations is like running up credit card debt to a point you canít make payments, and then getting a home equity loan to pay the credit card company. You still owe the debt, only now the payments are spread out over the length of the mortgage.

Cory Fogle

Carleton

Plan to hold kids back just asking for disaster

According to your editorial, on average, 1 in 3 students will be held back under a plan to hold back third-grade students who canít read at grade level. With our Republican Legislature holding the line on raising taxes, we can rest assured that no funding will be forthcoming for remedial reading programs. Students educated enough to pass the test will be rewarded with quieter, less-occupied fourth-grade classrooms. Of course, 36,000 extra kids in the third grade will likely make it even harder to teach, but hey, thatís not the Legislatureís problem. They donít teach; they just tell the teachers how to do their job.